I figure I’ll just go for it and pick up one soul in my hand, careful not to drop it. I don’t want some guy cursed with being stuck in the ground just because I’m a klutzy idiot. As soon as my hand touches it, I’m struck by the texture. It’s kind of squishy? Malleable. Not at all how I was expecting it to feel. I hold on to it for a couple of seconds, getting used to the slight weight of it and then I get the sudden urge to move my feet.
An invisible string tugs me along, out of the room, up the stairs and into Finn’s cave. I let it lead me, my feet moving without conscious thought on my part. I pass by my dragon’s sleeping form, barely taking in anything around me. I’m single minded in my need to keep moving, only pausing once I reach the gate and feel a tingling at my solar plexus.
“Hello, Echo,” a soft female voice says into my ear. “Ready to help them move on?”
I twist around, but there’s no one there.
I hear the voice again, this time it lets out a slow, soft chuckle and I understand the reason I couldn’t see anybody. The voice is inside my head.
“Are you…”
“Standing right in front of you,” she says, her voice full of amusement. But the only thing in front of me is…
“The gate.”
“You’re a woman.” A vague stab of something that feels strangely like jealousy hits me when I remember all the talk of my Finn’s dedication to his gate.
She gives another soft chuckle. “I’m a gate, sweetness. You have nothing to worry about from me. I’m glad that you found Finn, he’s a wonderful guardian but I fear he’s had a lot of years with little to make him smile.” She pauses and I can almost hear the laughter in her voice. “Now, tell your man not to worry, this next part is going to come as easily as breathing. You’re in exactly the right place now, Echo.”
Not something that anyone’s ever said to me before, and it feels strangely prophetic. But, then again, I am chatting with a gate, so what do I know? I turn back to see Brogan hovering worriedly behind me.
“See you soon.” I grin over my shoulder at him and he lunges forward and presses an almost desperate kiss to my lips, like he’s afraid I’m going to disappear and not come back.
I step through the gate and find myself in a small stone antechamber. The stone in my hand quivers more vigorously making my fingers tingle.
And then the soul dissipates right in front of me.
I panic. I’m pretty sure that I must have messed up somehow and that poor person is going to be stuck here in a musty antechamber for the rest of their long afterlife. Wringing my hand and staring around I can see there’s a twinkling in the air in front of me, like the room is filled with glitter. It’s not too different from when Finn reformed from his dragon form.
The soul transforms into the vague outline of a person, made up of glitter. I can’t see their features and it’s a little creepy for them when they turn to face me since they don’t really have a face. I can’t tell their gender or even if they’re human.
They have two legs and zero horns, I can tell that much.
“Let’s get you to where you should be, shall we?”
I take their glittery hand in mine, feeling only the slightest pressure that lets me know that we’re connected.
There’s another tug in my gut, a little like the feeling I have when I world-hop, but this time I don’t really have any control over where I’m going. And I give into the sensation and the room dissolves around me.
We arrive in the middle of a forest and I let out a long sigh as a deep feeling of peace fills me. It's quiet here but I have absolutely no idea what to do next. Am I supposed to escort them somewhere or, like, say a few words and they’ll go off on their merry way? Is there a place I need to drop them off like soul daycare? I cling onto the soul’s hand as though I’m its overprotective mother and just like I’m its mom and it wants to go play with its friends, there’s a little impatient tug on my hand which almost feels like static shocks going through my fingertips. The feeling is not all that pleasant and I find my hand opening up involuntarily as my hold loosens.
As soon as I let go, the soul shimmers and the air once again fills with glitter.
And then it’s gone.
I blink a lot at the space where the soul once stood. I don’t even know what this place is, but it feels right that they’re here, but I don’t have any desire to stick around. Heading back to the anteroom and then to the gate, it all feels a little too easy.
“It’s right, sweetness,” the gate says soothingly. “You’re doing what you should, taking them to the place they belong. It should be easy.”
Well okay then, the gate is apparently a mind reader. I step through… her, and am immediately tackled by a massive dog that throws itself at me, licking my face and neck as I shriek and giggle, trying to get away from its sloppy tongue.
“Down boy, down.” I laugh. “Seriously, Brogan, I told you I’d be fine and look at me, fine and dandy.”
He morphs back into his other form and pulls me into a hug. A slightly sweaty, very naked hug.
“It went okay?” he mumbles into my hair. “Sorry, I started panicking as soon as you went through. I should have gone with you, but—”
“Most people can’t get anywhere from the other side of the gate,” Finn’s deep voice says from behind us. “Only souls and destiny weavers should be able to travel out of the antechamber.”
